Adding the Brimbles Dollhouse Porch

After I Built the porch, I looked at it and decided it should have a wood plank porch so I painted the porch for and porch sides black:

After the black paint dried, I started adding wood strips until it was all covered:


After that, I added some Old English furniture polish all over the porch wood. It looks great and the gaps in between the wood makes this look more authentic because I added the black paint in between.

Working On a Brimbles Dollhouse Kit

I know, I have been quite here on my blog. It's because I have started back working on a fabulous house. I am doing the Brimbles Mercantile kit by Greenleaf Dollhouses for a customer of mine. It's not much to look at right now but, here are some shots so you all can see it. I love the wallpaper colors. I love just about every shade of blue!!! The shade in the wallpapers the customer gave me just looks wonderful.

I'll upload more shots later. These are down stairs shots:




This is the upstairs:



Putting the stairs together was a killer! My customer is happy so I am too. I hope to have this one completed by the first week of February.

This is what the plain kit looks like:


I will have stone on the outside of this one.

More Than Just A Card . Miniatures!!!

Have you ever wanted to express your feelings to your friends or family with a card? Why not try doing a Vignette Card! An Online friend of mine gave me the idea to try this years ago when she made a card scene for a friend of hers. Over the years, I have done several card scenes for my friends and loved ones. In 2007, I had several friends who had baby showers around the same time. I shared my love of miniatures with them by creating "Card Scene" Vignettes. These are some of the ones I came up with and after seeing them, I hope you share pictures with us of what you come up with. Please post the link to pictures of yours in the comment section!!!

Twilight Action Figures For Dollhouses

I have a customer who loves the book series Twilight By Stephenie Meyer, She wants me to create her a Dollhouse Scene of Edward & Bella in the Meadow and we found out that there will be action figures of the main characters. This month, some places are going to start shipping the first action figure which is Edward Cullen. I will keep everyone posted on the progress of this scene.

Dollhouse Sword In A Stone Tutorial

Do you Love Castle scenes and medieval things? What about the King Arthur? Do you want to do something neat and fun for your fantasy miniature setting? Well, why not try out this tutorial I did a little while ago. It is a Sword in a Stone tutorial. You can see it here it was published in Greenleaf's Gazette in July 2007:

Doll House Tutorial

I love making things that are different and the sword in the stone was one of those things that I had a ball making for some of my friends. Please enjoy the tutorial and please share pictures with me of yours when you create your own item!

When a person mentions Creative Paperclay,© people in the dollhouse community often times automatically think either Stonework for the dollhouse structure or they think fireplace. Well this month, I am challenging everyone who wants to take the time to even “play” with paperclay to think outside of the black package!!

A year ago, I participated in a swap and wanted to make something different with things I had around the house. I had some pretty toothpicks that look like a sword; I had some cardboard and packing peanuts and a pack of paper clay. My son had some small jars of “Testors” Hobby paint that modelers use for painting the model cars (Mine were purchased at Walmart) I had metallic silver and metallic blue. And then it hit me. Why not make a sword in the stone scene!!

The items you will need are:

One sword shaped toothpick
One ¼ fl ounce bottle of Silver or gray enamel paint
One ¼ fluid ounce of Metallic Blue
One ¼ fluid ounce of gold
One oval shaped piece of card board (Mine was 3 ½” L x 2 ½” D)
Paper clay
Wood Glue
1 ½” paint brush
One Styrofoam peanut
Green foam (found in train supply stores)
Some leafy looking plants
Gray, Brown and black acrylic paint (for painting paperclay once it dries)

First, you take the sword shaped toothpick

 and cut off curved handle part so it will look like this

Take your silver or gray paint and paint the lower half of your sword as shown in the picture above. Set it aside to let it dry.

This is the picture of the hobby paint I used

  

take your piece of cardboard and smear wood (or tacky)  glue on top of it

  take your packing popcorn and place it in the center of the cardboard, (you can stack a second one on top if you want a bigger stone):

 Next, take your wood glue and smear it as evenly as possible over the popcorn

  roll your paperclay to the thickness of pie crust

 Scrap off the clay and lay it flat on top of the cardboard piece like this

 take your paint brush and pounce all over the cardboard to make the clay more shaped and defined and to help it adhere to the cardboard & foam. Be gentle but firm enough so that it looks something like this when completed

 Now, take your sword and put glue on the tip and place it in your stone

Take your blue & gold paint and paint the handle. I do this part now because of the fact that it can now stand up and dry while both sides get air so there will not be any red from the original toothpick showing.

 let the Paperclay dry. It can take up to eight hours in some locations for something like this to dry in some areas. So be patient.

Once your clay has dried, it is time to paint the stone.

Take one tablespoon of water (from a measuring spoon NOT from dinnerware spoon) and add one drop of Gray, Black and brown acrylic paint

 stir that together, paint the Paperclay all over with that mixture then let it dry

 take one drop of brown paint and
add 3 drops of water and swish your brush one time on the front, one side and back (it can look sloppy don’t redo the swish strokes). You only want faint hints of those colors so do NOT add more paint

Next do the same with the Gray paint and it should look like this when dry.

Now, let’s add some greenery:

Add glue all around your structure like this

 Now add your Green foam all around it like this

 Now add your leafy green leaves and flowers

 Now you are finished! Enjoy building an entire scene around this

Thank you for viewing my blog!

Dollhouse Gated Garden Fountain Scene

This scene has everything you need to make your miniature scene complete! This scene has a hand made pink climbing rose that is climbing up the side. There are hand sculpted & painted stone that has moss growing in the cracks to add that extra level of character. The "iron" gate has a verdigris aged finish. This scene also has a little blue bird taking in the beauty. There is also a purple flower tree growing along the other side of this scene. The Lion Head Fountain scene has water pouring from it's mouth. This tranquil setting is ready for purchase! It is OOAK (One Of A Kind) and this is the only one I made (Not from a kit at all but from my imagination). Own this scene today. It is 1" scale and the size is 10"H x 8"W x 7"D This fountain is for sell in my CDHM Store http://www.cdhm.org/user/minisontheedge

Rachel's Aged Dollhouse Shingle Staining Technique

My Daughter Rachel decided she wanted to do a tutorial on her favorite way to stain the shingles on her dollhouses and her first tutorial appeared in the December 2008 Greenleaf Gazette. She was so excited to see herself published online :)

Rachel's Shingle Paint Stain technique

Do you want to add a different aged look to your dollhouse shingles? Follow along as my daughter Rachel shows you how she did it to one of her houses.  Many times, you may find that the different shades of browns for your roof may leave your houses looking like every other dollhouse you've seen. You can change that simply by staining your roof using paint & water.

You can do this by first painting your entire roof black. This will help because when you use this technique, your shingles may curl and warp in some areas. It will show black underneath and NOT the bare wood underneath the shingles. You WANT the shingles to do this because that is what gives the aged looked.

Start shingling the roof just the way you always do.

 Once the entire roof is shingled, you can take a 4 ounce paper cup and fill it halfway with water.  Then you'll add 1 teaspoon of the paint color you wish have for your roof color. Remember, this color will not be as dark as the paint shows because it will be watered down. Stir that paint around in the cup. Get your paint brush and start painting!

Paint each row one at a time being sure to cover all of your shingles.  Your brush needs to be very wet!  Paint from side to side but let your final strokes go down from the top of the shingles to the bottom. The picture below shows Rachel going side to side with her shingles.

 This is what it looked like when Rachel finished.  After it dried, she decided she wanted hers to be a darker color. So she went over it again with the water wash.

Once that dried, Rachel wanted to add more details in select shingles so she took a dry brush and added black paint to it. You do this step by adding a couple of drops of black paint on a plate (we used a piece of card board). Add paint to the front and back of your dry brush and then wipe off the excess paint.

start painting around the edges of your shingles and the bottom ends of your shingles.

Her house is not totally complete but we will continue to add the shots as she finishes it. 

Here are a few houses I used this technique on.

I used gray paint and used no highlights on this one.

 I used to shades of purple on this one. A darker purple and a lighter purple

 I used two shades of green on this roof

If you use this technique on your houses, Rachel would love for you to post links so we can see your pictures!!!